Southbank Centre Anmeldelser 

I’ve just bought a concert ticket and, on top of the advertised price, was slapped with:

Booking fee: £4.00
Restoration levy: £2.00

This is complete daylight robbery. An extra 15% tacked on for no good reason — hidden, pointless charges that add up. Charging unnecessary fees twice is nothing short of a rip‑off. Southbank Centre, you’re gouging your customers and getting away with it.

I saw the "Art of Fugue" with my parents, which was a birthday present to my Dad. Acrobatics set to Bach's final composition. Booking process was easy, with booking fee clearly displayed from the beginning. Simple 2-tier pricing quite refreshing. I was sent a free digital programme a few days before the event which was quite interesting.
The event itself was great, with some impressive feats of strength from Circa.
I visited the facilities after it finished. Despite a mass exodus from the Queen Elizabeth Hall, no problem with capacity.

Warning. A £5 donation to the South Bank Centre was added to my ticket price without my agreement. The ticket price already included an amount of £2 for a restoration levy, and a booking fee of £4. Just before the payment stage, the site suddenly asked if I wanted to claim GiftAid on a donation. A range of amounts for such a donation was offered, starting at £3 but with £5 highlighted. It said, "You will be able to opt out of the donation below". No method was available to opt out of the donation so I found I had paid it. And of course I hadn't even opted to get GiftAid on it! If any other website did this there would be instant action. Would not expect this of a respected organisation such as the South Bank.
I contacted the SouthBank Centre by email and they are refunding me the unintended donation. They did so without being asked to do so, which was appreciated.

The Southbank Centre's Customer Relations team seems either non-existent or actively works to make the customer experience frustrating. I attended a performance where the person seated in front of me was tall, blocking my view entirely. I also noticed that the seating arrangement is poorly designed, with very little space between rows, making the issue even worse. I submitted a complaint to Customer Relations, but they refused to offer any resolution, such as a refund or a complimentary ticket to another performance. As a result, I will never be booking tickets with them again.

Their security team has done nothing to make me and my friends feel safe on their site (funded by public money). They have allowed and keep allowing our aggressor (the person who has threatened me and others and physically assaulted a person) to host events on their premises. Whilst the Security Manager, Alatise, wrongly accused us, the victims, to be the aggressors of such horrible actions. This organisation is funded by public money and I find it extremely disappointing and disgraceful to see how they have handled this situation. As a beneficiary of the site, I feel extremely unsafe on their premises and I have not been there since when the assault took place in July 2025. I know of other people who have unfortunately experienced similar situations. I hope they will start taking some actions so that other people won’t have to go through what I have experienced.

I should have written this review a couple of months ago, but I did fill in a survey after the event. It's so nice to be able to write a positive review for a change as, sadly, I seem to have far more poor experiences of customer service than good ones.

I attended a daytime concert at the Royal Festival Hall and was blown away by the service afforded to disabled people like myself. As soon as I reached the door (struggling with mobility and my asthma), a staff member took me to the lift and radioed her colleague on an upper level to look out for me and assist me. That person then took me to my seat and asked if she could bring me some water, which I gratefully accepted.

After the concert I was looking for a toilet that was open - the only ones I could see were being refurbished. A woman spotted me and came over to offer assistance. She said she was a member of the Access Team and took me to the nearest disabled toilet in a wheelchair. She also went above and beyond to make sure I could get home again (I tend to think I'm capable of more than I really am, physically).

I was so impressed by the Southbank Centre's attitude towards disability and the assistance offered. I attended another concert at a different venue the following day and it was a very different story.

What would have made the experience even better - and this is probably outside the remit of the Southbank Centre - is if there was more signage to the venue, as well as information for disabled people between Waterloo Station and the Centre. Despite having been there many times, I came out of an unfamiliar entrance at Waterloo and got completely lost. It would have been good to know of an accessible route to the Centre as there are potentially lots of steps to negotiate.

However, once I arrived, the service was fantastic. Well done! Other venues should take a leaf out of your book.

I will never book here again. Lost nearly £200 as couldn't attend a show. In this day and age it's disgraceful that they don't have an option to re-sell your ticket for face value like Ticketmaster does. The show I booked was a sell out so they could make money on charging fees and customers would be happy. They don't care about customers as I called them.
It was very difficult to book tickets in the first place too. Internet page said they were sold out but tickets kept springing up all over the place for days - I spent some many hours trying to book. Never again - I will go straight to Ticketmaster next time.

The staff were amazing!

My friend was unable to use the stairs to get to her seat so the staff arranged different seats as short notice where we were all still able to sit together and that were easy for my friend to get to.

paid for my tickets weeks ago
they have my money
tickets promised for just 1 week before the show
no tickets in my email or spam
I have to chase them
that's not right

saw a game show production called Hidden Tracks today at the purcell room. the music seemed an add on rather then a major factor in the format and so some of the music was a bit dull, and many of the stories were problematic. for example there were stories of saddening transactional decisions about love, a tale of violence where it was not clear any truth had been told to the person responsible, and a memory of a song that might not have been important if it had not been sung by someone from Ukraine. a funny story at the end made the evening bearable. however overall a terrible idea of mine to go.

Visited Southbank Centre today and admittedly its Graduation. However, do the security guards have to be sooo rude? It is possible to do a job like that with politeness, especially when someone is cooperating. I've experienced politeness in other similar venues.
I used to love hanging out at Southbank but it so often feels like an empty shell these days. So sad! I don't even take visitors to UK or London there these days.

Booked tickets in advance ,last minute get e mail that they have changed my seats without any prior notice or consent ,moved to cheaper seats 6 rows down ,tried to get in touch through what’s app as thee sound be there until 8pm no response
Asked for compensation no response
Never heard from them
Don’t ever book anything again if you don’t want to be scammed out of your hard earned money

We recently attended an Emilie Sande performance and were left extremely disappointed. The artist spent the entire evening, except for one song, with her back to the audience. We paid for the most expensive seats, £120 in total, only to have a view of her back.

When I raised this issue with customer service, their response was: "As the host venue, we can only facilitate the event as directed by the artist and their production team. The piano placement and the artist's position at the piano is standard for such concerts, and unfortunately, we are unable to control the artist's level of audience engagement. If you are ever dissatisfied with the seats booked, it is best to speak to the Duty Management team at the moment, who can look at finding you alternative seating if available. I am very sorry that the view from your seats and the artist's performance did not meet your expectations. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer any form of compensation on this occasion."

This response was very disappointing. If you know that the main artist will be using a piano positioned so their back is facing the audience, it should be communicated clearly. Labeling these seats as "restricted view" would be more accurate, giving consumers the choice between booking premium seats or less expensive ones, knowing that there is no difference in what they get to see.

Having attended Southbank on many occasions, we have never experienced this before. It was extremely disappointing, there was no atmosphere, and we wish we had never bothered and saved our money.

have to book months ahead to get seats
only eTickets provided
tickets not emailed till 7 days before show
bet they take my money now!
take my money when you delivar the goods
my computer could crash in that last week
what do I do then?
and as for the transaction fee:
are you in business or not?

We booked to see ru Paul 7th april coming down from Scotland which is a pricey enough trip down only to see that the trains are cancelled that whole weekend so we can't get down. First we were offered free credit of the ticket amount (BUT FOR AN ADDITIONAL £3 FEE) I said absolutely not and they said okay no fee. I outlined the costs of travel and everything and they said were LUCKY thry even give credit as some places don't. I reminded them how we had trains booked who are equally bad at refunds and cost more this is not acceptable. They gave us another email that had no confirmation back and by the looks of things a place to ignore you. Seeing were in a cost of living crisis and its an expensive and long journey there seems to be no customer care or service. It says it all that they don't even ask for your customer order number on here so they can ignore you so I'll put it here and hope they do get back to me and either offer us something better or ideally just our hard earned money back due to the trains being cancelled nationwide! Order: 26551605

This review is specific to Skylon restaurant in the Royal Festival Hall at Southbank Centre:

I made a reservation for a birthday dinner celebration several months in advance. Six weeks before the event I received a call cancelling my reservation because a commercial booking took precedence. I followed up with an email expressing my disappointment and have yet to receive a reply (4 days later).

Clearly this restaurant does not care about its customers.

I had planned to become a 'Friend of the Southbank Centre' - not now!

Some time ago my wife and I, both elderly, booked to go to the Festival Hall. In the event , for covid and railstrike reasons we couldn't go. Because we live outside London it is difficult and expensive to replan such things . But we have been refused a refund and given a voucher. It is not what we want. We've tried to find things to go to but found it difficult to get manageable info about all the venues in one place .I would not recommend anyone who wasn't cast iron certain of attending to book at the Centre. It gets difficult thereafter. I know what the t&cs say but what we want is a refund. Life would be easier for the customer.

Extremely unhelpful box office and customer service.
I got covid and gave over 24 hours notice as stated on the website and they refused to give me as a credit.
They haven't even responded to my last email.
They don't even know what's on their own website!
A renowned venue who don't care about their customers.

The team here are friendly and helpful. I had an issue with my ticket, they were extremely helpful and resolve my issue with no drama. Great venue.

Great place, fantastic staff. I had a problem with some tickets and they sorted it out without a problem.